PETALING JAYA: A former law minister has hit back at Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman for claiming that Barisan Nasional was attempting to bait voters by pledging citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
Azalina Othman Said reminded the Muda president that she led a parliamentary special select committee on women, children and social development as well as raised questions in Parliament over the issue.
“Seriously? Wasn’t it a BN MP who asked multiple questions in the Dewan Rakyat on this issue and initiated the private member’s bill that you ‘copied & pasted’ for submission?” she said in a tweet.
The former Pengerang MP, who is seeking a fifth term, said this in response to Syed Saddiq who dismissed the pledge made in BN’s manifesto.
Syed Saddiq then pointed out that Azalina was backed by many opposition MPs including himself and former deputy women, family and community development minister Hannah Yeoh.
“Ma’am, you know the truth behind this. The BN-led government didn’t even allow your bipartisan bill to see the light of day,” he said.
“If they won’t listen to you, why would they listen to mothers?”
To which Azalina replied: “Sir … when you were 22 months in government, why didn’t Pakatan Harapan do the constitutional amendment on citizenship?”
In September, Azalina had filed a motion to table a private member’s bill for a constitutional amendment to grant overseas-born children citizenship through their Malaysian mothers.
She was among the 17 MPs who had filed such a motion, only for it to be rejected, by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Harun in October.
The bill sought to amend Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution to insert the words “or mother” after the word “father” in Clauses (1)(b) and (1)(c).
The motion was rejected on grounds that constitutional amendments cannot be passed without the consent of the Conference of Rulers.
